


June 7th, Oklahoma

by Julesin



Series: Runaways, or That Feel When Multiverse Theory is Confirmed Canon [4]
Category: Everyman HYBRID, Marble Hornets, Tribe Twelve
Genre: Again Grey-Aro Alex implied, Brian is Awkward and Adorable, Brief Reminiscing of the Past, First Dates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 06:05:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12315234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julesin/pseuds/Julesin
Summary: "Brian," Tim intoned, placing a hand firmly on his shoulder. "You are twenty-eight years old. I think you can handle asking a boy out on a date."Brian looked at him, fear widening his eyes. "But I don't know how!""You did with me.""No I didn't, that just kind of happened!"





	June 7th, Oklahoma

"Um... Hey, Tim?"

Brian rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably when his best friend, his boyfriend, gave him full attention. "Oh, hey. Is everybody still outside?"

"Oh, yeah." Tim turned back to the convenience store shelf with a nod, picking up a package of chips and looking at the ingredients list. He'd been very particular about what they all ate recently, though Brian supposed if they were supposed to save the world or whatever they should eat right. Especially since all they ate was gas station food with the occasional burger or cheap sandwich. 

"I, um, wanted to ask you something."

Tim looked up, face growing more serious and worried as he put the chips back. "What's up?"

Brian swallowed, trying to get his thoughts in order. "Well, I just wanted, um. Do-" He took a deep breath. "Do you think Alex likes me?"

Tim blinked several times before letting out a snort and shaking his head. "Oh, is that all?"

"Tim, I'm serious!"

"I know, I know," he responded, putting up a placating hand. "Look, why don't you ask him? I'm sure he'll be more than willing to tell you, you know how he is."

"That's not what I mean." Brian hugged himself, feeling strangely vulnerable. "I just...it feels weird."

"What does?"

"Our relationships!" he finally got out. "I mean, you and Jay and Alex are like...the main members. You're all dating, and happy, and each of you has a deep connection with the other. But I'm..." Brian sighed miserably. "I'm just here. I'm just dating you. Not that that doesn't make me happy," he added quickly, his mouth beginning to run without his brain being able to catch up. "I mean, I'm really happy with you. I care about you a ton. But I just-" He caught himself, swallowing and steeling himself for a moment. "I just feel left out sometimes."

Tim watched him for a moment, expression unreadable, before a small smile lit up his face. "How about this: When we stop at our next hotel, I'll keep everyone else occupied getting the rooms and you can ask Alex on a date."

Brian blinked, heart racing. "Wh-what?"

"Just ask him to get supplies with you or something."

"But you're doing that now."

Tim rolled his eyes, grabbing the bag of chips he'd been inspecting and dropping it in the bag before grabbing a couple more. "You'll figure something out. And just to abate any discomfort," he added, sliding closer and setting a hand gently on Brian's waist. "I'm encouraging this, and I'm okay with it. It's kind of implied by how poly we all are anyways, but I know how important it can be to hear it specifically."

Brian nodded, taking a deep breath before smiling back. He wondered vaguely when Tim had became the strong one in their relationship. "Okay." Tim gently kissed him before moving out of the aisles and towards the cashier, a young lady who smiled warmly at him as she rang up their stuff. Brian joined Tim at the counter, watched her flirt with him excessively, and found he didn't particularly care. "I'll wait for you outside," he murmured, slipping his hand just under the edge of Tim's shirt to brush fingers against his side. 

He was trying to be discreet, but the girl's eyes widened. "Oh, are...are you two together?" She turned red, quickly ringing up the rest of their items. "I'm so sorry," she flustered to Tim. "I didn't realize-"

He waved a hand, an amused smile on his face. "It's fine, don't worry about it. We are, but..." Tim met Brian's gaze, a question present there, and Brian gave a tiny shrug. _Do what you want._ "If you were hoping to give me your number anyways, I wouldn't say no."

Her eyes widened, and she awkwardly scratched the side of her neck, the blush increasing. "Y-yeah, sure! Oh, uh, twenty-two, thirty seven." As Tim counted out the cash, she tapped her fingers nervously on the counter, then took the money and printed a receipt. She scribbled some numbers down and handed the paper to Tim, who pocketed it with a warm smile. She returned it shyly. "My name is Taylor."

"Tim. This is Brian." She smiled at the latter, who smiled back with amusement. 

"Have a good day!" she called as they left, and Tim waved back as the doors closed. 

"What?" he asked when Brian smirked at him. 

"Nothing." Upon rejoining the rest of their group, Brian made it clear it was not nothing by calling in a singing voice, "Tim got the cashier's num-ber~"

Jay and Alex responded with a long drawn out, "Ooohhh!" while Jessica broke down laughing. Evan rolled his eyes from under Vincent's arm. 

The raven who felt very attacked right now snorted and headed towards the cars with the supplies, calling back, "Whatever!"

Brian glanced towards Alex and Jay, the latter of which was leaning with his chin over the former's shoulder, grinning, and wished. 

: ~ :

The drive was, as always, uneventful. They pulled into a small town just over the border of Oklahoma, drove around until they found the only hotel in town, and parked, planning to get two rooms, like usual. They always got some odd looks, getting only two rooms for seven guys (plus Jessica). Most people probably assumed they wouldn't be comfortable sleeping together. 

Then again, most people didn't know just how close they all were, so that wasn't surprising. 

They all piled out of the cars in front of the hotel, stretching and easing cramped muscles, and Tim sidled over to Brian, the look on his face mischievous. "So," he murmured. "Alex is over there."

Brian faltered, hunching forwards to feel smaller. He gave a small distressed groan in response. 

"Oh, come on."

"'M scared."

"Brian," Tim intoned, placing a hand firmly on his shoulder. "You are twenty-eight years old. I think you can handle asking a boy out on a date."

Brian looked at him, fear widening his eyes. "But I don't know how!"

"You did with me."

"No I didn't, that just kind of happened!"

Tim opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again, irritation in his features. "Okay, I suppose that's true. But come on, you can do this. I promise. I support you one hundred percent." He gestured towards Alex, who was deep in conversation with Jay. As if on cue, it seemed to end, and Jay turned to Jessica, leaving Alex to glance their way and smile. 

Tim patted Brian on the back, then headed right for Alex, murmuring something in his ear before heading for the hotel doors. Alex stared after him, perplexed, and Brian took the chance to walk up to him. 

"Uh, hey."

Alex turned back in surprise, then smirked. "Hey. How you holding up?"

"Um. Pretty good. Tired. Hungry. Speaking of which!" He took a deep breath. "You wanna, like, get something to eat?"

Alex blinked rapidly, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure. We should ask everybody what they want first, but-"

"No, I mean-" Brian huffed in irritation. "I mean, just us. Us two. Together. Food." _That's enough outta you, mouth,_ he decided, and quickly snapped it shut. 

Alex watched him for a moment, expression more than a bit confused, before sudden realization flashed over it. He glanced back towards the hotel, where Tim and the others had vanished, and slowly smiled again. "Bastard," he muttered, though it wasn't in a bad way. He looked back to Brian. "Do you know what Tim just whispered to me?"

Brian shook his head.

"He said 'Go easy on him.' Which made little sense without context, but I think I get it now." Alex smiled as warmly as it was probably possible for him to, the little sarcastic quirk still in his eyebrow. "To answer your question, yes. I will go get food with you. Is it a date? Is that what I should treat this as?"

Brian nodded wordlessly. 

"I figured." Alex inhaled, exhaled heavily, then gestured back towards the main street of the small town. "Shall we?"

The two wandered, heading down the main road. Brian was debating with himself whether to take Alex's hand when the decision was made for him, and he looked away, gripping Alex's palm with his own hand shaking. He could see the other man's smirk out of the corner of his eyes and cleared his throat, watching the smirk grow into a full grin at his awkwardness. 

"Here?" Alex asked after a bit of walking, gesturing to a small restaurant with a sign outside touting 'Southern Home Cooking' as their main specialty. Brian felt his mouth water, remembering what his mom used to make back in Alabama. He nodded. 

When they entered the tiny restaurant, Brian immediately had a feeling that they should be discreet. The air of the restaurant was definitely very Southern, and not that good, warm, welcoming type. He was pretty sure that guy sitting in the booth nearby had a pistol in his belt, too. He let go of Alex's hand. 

They were quickly seated, and the waitress asked where they were headed since they were obviously from out of town. Alex made a vague statement about visiting a friend in California, and she wandered away to tend to another customer while they took a look at the menus. 

"We gotta figure something out first," Alex muttered across to him, and Brian looked up curiously. "Who's paying?"

Brian rolled his eyes at the smirk Alex gave him. "Tim gave me two twenties for this, we should be okay."

"Really?" Alex looked out the window of their booth. "I didn't know our expenses covered 'dates.'"

Brian shushed him playfully, then pulled up the menu again. There was so much on there that gave him nostalgia, and for the first time in a while he thought of his parents. Where were they? Were they okay? They most likely thought he was dead, he'd been 'missing' for so long. Not that they were entirely wrong, he had been dead for a while there. It still hurt not to be able to tell them he was okay. Would he even be able to talk to them at this point, anyway? They were in an entirely different universe. He didn't think cellular coverage spanned that far. 

"You okay?" Alex asked quietly, pulling him out of his thoughts. He felt something crawl down his cheek, and realized he was crying. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good," he responded quickly, wiping the tear away. He wouldn't ruin this. Not today. 

Alex gave him a little comforting smile, them looked back down at his menu. "Well, I know what I want. You?"

Brian nodded, blinking repeatedly to get rid of any leftover tears. 

When their waitress came back around, they ordered, and within about ten minutes she brought their drinks out. Pretty good service, all things considered, though being two guys sitting across from each other in a booth was getting them a couple of looks. Brian tried to ignore them. Alex wasn't helping when he brushed his foot against Brian's calf, then gave him an affectionate smirk from across the table. 

Their food was brought pretty quickly, and they immediately dug in, too busy eating the first real meal they'd had in months to talk. Alex reached over and stole one of Brian's fries, who gave him a mockingly offended look. He was unperturbed, simply tossing the fry in his mouth and raising his eyebrows. He licked his lips of the salt, and Brian had to look down at his plate and clear his throat. 

They finished as fast as possible, shoving food in their mouths and downing bottomless soda refills like it was the Olympics of shitty food eating contests. Their waitress kept giving them odd looks whenever she came by, but they didn't pay it much mind, too busy enraptured by their food. Brian forked out the forty bucks he had in his jacket pocket, wiping his mouth of gravy and food bits as he handed it to the waitress. Brian then let out a rather loud burp, which made Alex snicker madly into his hand and another patron nearby give him a scathing look. They left quickly. 

Now full and placated, they wandered the streets for a bit, looking into shop windows as the sun slowly went down and bathed the town in golden light. Their shoulders bumped as they walked, and eventually Alex took Brian's hand again, lacing their fingers together like it didn't make the latter want to sink into his hoodie in embarrassed happiness. They shuffled into a little ice cream parlor, using the last few bucks from dinner on two small cones, then decided it was best to head back to the hotel before night fell. The only thing that could ruin this now was them having panic attacks in the darkness. 

They re-entered the hotel, and Brian made to let go of Alex's hand, but the other man held fast, giving him a strong look with a little smile when he glanced over. Brian swallowed, gave a little nod. They headed upstairs to the rooms. 

Tim answered the door when they knocked, a smug smile on his face as he handed them each a room key. They followed him into the room where Jay was sitting on one of the two beds, using Tim's phone. He looked up. 

"How'd the date go?"

Brian gave Tim a look. He shrugged. 

"It went well," Alex responded cheerfully.

"I hope you didn't use up all the money I gave you," Tim lectured, eyeing their ice cream. Brian rubbed the back of his head, feeling about twenty cents jingle around in his pocket, but Tim snorted and rolled his eyes. "I'm kidding, Brian. Don't worry about it."

Alex sat down heavily on the other bed, opposite from Jay, and crooked his finger to Brian, who moved closer and leaned down. Alex's lips pressed calmly to his, just a short, light kiss, but it made Brian lightheaded regardless. He smiled giddily when they parted, and Jay giggled a few feet away. 

"Hey, Brian?" He glanced over at Jay, who smiled slyly as he stood and sashayed over to fix the collar of Brian's jacket. "I think you're forgetting someone."

Brian blinked repeatedly, head still a little hazy from the kiss, and then Jay's lips were on his and it got even worse. He sighed into it, hands creeping onto Jay's waist just as they parted. Jay smiled up at him, more shy this time, as he shook his head of the fog. 

"Tim told me you'd been feeling left out of everything. I thought I should show you just how much you matter in this...thing, we have, whatever it is." Jay kissed him again, just a quick peck. "How'd I do?"

Brian nodded, unable to form coherent words at the moment. Jay grinned and looked down at Alex, who was simply leaning back and enjoying the show. 

Tim stood and shuffled over to join them, entwining his fingers with Brian's. "I think we've succeeded." Brian nodded again, more vigorously. 

"That was adorable." They all looked to the door between the rooms. Jessica was leaning against the door frame, an affectionate smirk plastered across her face. "I don't mean to interrupt, but it is getting rather late, and we gotta get going pretty early tomorrow morning if we're gonna get out of Oklahoma in the next couple of days."

Tim sighed and muttered, "She's right."

The four boys quietly moved apart, giving Jessica the affirmative--they were headin towards bed. She gave them one last smile and a, "Good night," before closing the door. 

Brian curled up against Tim, tucking his chin over the shorter man's shoulder. Tim hummed in response. "Did you have a good time today?" he murmured sleepily. 

"Yeah," Brian replied, turning his head to press his lips against Tim's neck. "I did."

Tim smiled. 

"Did you ever call Taylor?"

And groaned.

**Author's Note:**

> I love these boys and adore Alex/Brian/Jay/Tim  
> Please let them be happy  
> From here on I will be posting these on........Fridays? Let's say Fridays  
> I have a lot of them pre-written but not all so ya know  
> That'll give me some time


End file.
